Belly Dancing For Men: Why Not?
Why can’t men learn to belly dance? They have bellys, don’t they?
It seems that in China young men have been studying the art of this ancient social dance that is native to North Africa, Asia and The Middle East.
What brought this on?
For centuries, only women performed the erotic and highly sensual belly dance, but today in southwestern China’s metropolis of Chongqing, young men have begun to practice this seductive art form as a means of learning how to both develop and maintain a flat stomach.
Belly dancing has become very fashionable. The pelvic area is the focal point of the dance, which is generally improvised by the lone performer, and the art form has its own secret cache of movements that are perfectly integrated with the music’s pulsating rhythms.
Perhaps indicative of China opening up to the ways of other cultures and a rise in living standards, belly dancing has caught on. One man in particular, Guo Wei, has climbed his way up to the top of the dance world success ladder with his Chinese Celebrity Guo Wei Belly Dancing Club.
He teaches his students, mostly female college students but some young men as well, how to use a veil and integrate it into dance movements. Each student pays a hefty price for their navel exercising; that is, more than $750 a year.
Guo discovered belly dancing after his parents divorced and he was left to fend for himself at a very early age. He traveled to Egypt where in 2004, he learned the dance from a teacher who was also a man.
“I thought it was strange that I had a male teacher. I had wanted to study with a woman, because I thought women made better belly dancers. But men are more careful teachers. Besides, women like male teachers better,” he said.
“I found him on the Internet, and at first I thought it was a bit odd. But then I saw him dance. He was just so natural… more feminine than a woman, and very attractive. There was nothing more to consider, so I just came here”, says Hu Lingna, a former female student from Shanghai who is now a fellow belly dance teacher at Guo’s school.
A decade ago, Guo’s dancing would have been considered “bourgeois decadence.” Always the innovative entrepreneur, he has just unveiled another school which he hopes will be as successful as the belly dancing. It is, are you ready, the Guo Wei School of Hula Skirt Dancing.
What do YOU think about this?
(Link)
By MDeeDubroff on 08-05-2010
